Red Bull Youth AC- New Zealand wins top two places

The Peter Burling led NZL Sailing Team with ETNZ has won the inaugural Red Bull Youth America’s Cup while Will Tiller and FMJ Racing have placed second making it a kiwi double in San Francisco.

Burling and his crew of Blair Tuke, Jono Spurdle, Guy Endean, Andy Maloney, Sam Meech and Jason Saunders placed fourth in today’s opening race in San Francisco which saw them further extend their leading margin. When race eight was abandoned due to winds above the maximum limit allowed the victory was secured.

The victorious crew of young kiwis on the NZL Sailing Team with ETNZ, which includes five of New Zealand’s top Olympic campaigners, were billed by many as favourites from the start yet the overall standings were tight across the opening two days. Then Burling and crew took two outright wins on day three to put themselves in a strong, yet not unassailable, position going into today.

Peter Burling explains what it means to win the title; 'It’s amazing for us to take the win, we haven’t done that much sailing together as a crew but we all really grew into it this week and I think our results showed that as well. It was pretty humbling for me to do it under the Emirates Team New Zealand banner as well.'

'It was really cool that we could get a lot of the Olympic guys together and with a few other keelboat guys to help the mix. It is really amazing for us to have taken this thing out and I think it’s really good for our futures.'

Reflecting on the year Burling says, 'It has been an amazing twelve months of sailing for us, winning the silver medal in London was a high point for us,' says Burling. 'And then we heard that there was a youth America’s Cup going on.'

Peter Burling and crew - winners - Final day of the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup

New Zealand’s Will Tiller and his Full Metal Jacket Racing took the silver podium position after a fifth in today’s race giving them a narrow one point edge over ROFF/Cascais of Portugal who finished third.

Tiller explains what it has taken for him and his crew to get to the podium; 'It’s been an incredible journey for us switching from the match racing and then jumping into these multihulls as soon as the Red Bull Youth America’s Cup was announced.'

'I think the team has adapted really well, I think there is still a way to go to catch the other kiwi boys, I think they were an amazingly string team and they showed it out there by being quite dominant but hopefully in the years to come everyone can close in on these top youth sailors.'

Burling and his crew are now set to celebrate their victory and are staying on in San Francisco to watch Emirates Team New Zealand take on Oracle Team USA for the 34th America’s Cup starting Saturday.